Apple gets sales ban on certain Samsung devices in the U.S.

About a week after President Barack Obama used his presidential veto to prevent the ITC from starting a sales ban of the Apple iPhone 4 and the Apple iPad 2, the shoe might soon be on the other foot. On Thursday, the ITC ruled that a number of Samsung devices infringed on a pair of Apple patents which could lead to a sales ban in the U.S. of the infringing Samsung devices.

The names of the Samsung devices that face the sales ban were not listed by the court document. A wide range of products are involved. What we can tel you was that among the devices found to have not infringed on an Apple patent covering audio jack I/O circuitry, was the Samsung Transform (SPH-M920), Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 and the Samsung Galaxy S II. The ITC also ruled that four other Apple patents were not infringed on by the Korean manufacturer.

"With today’s decision, the ITC has joined courts around the world in Japan, Korea, Germany, Netherlands and California by standing up for innovation and rejecting Samsung’s blatant copying of Apple’s products. Protecting real innovation is what the patent system should be about."-Apple statement

"Apple has been stopped from trying to use its overbroad design patents to achieve a monopoly on rectangles and rounded corners. The proper focus for the smartphone industry is not a global war in the courts, but fair competition in the marketplace. Samsung will continue to launch many innovative products and we have already taken measures to ensure that all of our products will continue to be available in the United States."-Adam Yates, Samsung spokesman

The banned devices can still be sold while a Presidential Review period comes into play. It should be interesting to see what the President does in light of his action the other day which essentially saved the two aforementioned Apple products from being banned in the U.S. And while the President doesn't look at the Samsung vs. Apple battle as a fight among fanboys and operating systems, he most likely does take into consideration the fact that Apple is a U.S. company while Samsung is headquartered in South Korea.

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Not in this article, "Samsung also suggested that it may have already made the design tweaks necessary to keep selling all its products despite the ruling." The ruling and ban is already null and void just like the ban on the HTC One X last year. Thanks Apple for wasting everyone's time.

He won't do anything because his buddies don't work for Samsung. Al Gore isn't on the board of directors for Samsung. He doesn't give a crap about the economy. If you think that is why he vetoed the iphone ban your not seeing the big picture

S3 is cheap now. And im well aware this applies to USA only, and i dun think those in USA will buy a S2 anymore. That's exactly what i meant. Anyone in USA still buying a S2? S3 is probably free on contract already.

Prepaid company StraightTalk sells the S2, it's actually one of, if not their best smartphone. Most of the others available from them sound like 2009 specs (1GHz single core cpu, 3.5" screen, 2GB of onboard memory). While it may be gone from the main carriers, the consumers who can't afford them would be hurt by this ban.

No, it's not… the s2 and s2plus are just 2 years old outdated overpriced phones tha samsung can sell only because there are people who buy every thing from samsung, because the just choose the brand, but for the same price you could get much better phones (faster, with higher res screens and so on) from other brands.

If this ban goes through, watch out. It is too one sided at the moment with Samsung not only losing 1 billion and having the president spit on their patents and Samsung could just snap at any second and actually go steve jobs on Apple and use all of their profits to screw Apple over like Steve Jobs vowed to use all of his billions to destroy Android.

There are some level headed people over there, I would have done something drastic by now if I were Samsung.

Nothing petty about it. It is called principles and dignity, which is obviously something lacks.

Apple effectively sued them for 1 billion dollars by claiming they invented the society norm. It was the equivalent if Honda suing Toyota for using tires and winning 1 billion, even though the tire was invented way before either of them. To add on top of that,Toyota gets some of their patents disregarded by the president, and then on top of that Toyota gets two Honda cars banned.

There is just too much injustice there for anyone to take. It isn't about petty emotions, it is standing up for yourself and what is right. The only person that would take bullying of that level for the shareholders is the biggest pussy weaklings in the world. No one with a normal mindset would let that slide.

I know Steve Jobs wouldn't let it slide if the roles were reversed. That doesn't mean that he is letting petty emotions get in the way. It means that he is not going to be pushed over.

Could have fooled me looking at these patent trials. Apple is also a publicly traded company, so how does that explain his "thermonuclear" comment. As I recall he vowed to use every last resource to eliminate android, I'm sure the board and it's shareholders loved that. And his vow is what we have now. There are more court battles in the mobile industry than any other.

lol
so much hate for Samsung??
just because they sit right on Top???
what do u think, was it easy??
they deserve to be on top
they gave us android
and thats what other million and billion people need
galaxy y-----made for those people who cant afford high android device
and samsung started this league of cheap android phones
then everyone just followed this path
samsung is Best..

not only in sri lanka
samsung is leading in most of the countries
they care for each and every Class people
they give updates
they achieved the top position because of their hard work
they spend on marketing
they make every people know about its product

LOL… first of all, Google gave us Android, not samsung. Not only : when android came out, samsung was not even among the first manufacturers to adopt it (the first was htc) because they were pushing they own OS. In the first period, htc became the leading oem, and when samsung realized that android was growing so much they just jumped in the ship and used all their money to flood the market with models and ads. Not only: they were not even the first to push low price handsets. They did it only when they were forced by LG, sonyericsson and huawei who were the first to release affordable yet usable phones. Fanboys cannot rewrite history, yet it's very interesting to see how they modify reality to fit things in their fanboy mental schemes.

Funny thing is HTC failed to push Android ahead of Apple although they adopted earlier. Samsung has been the main contributor for Android popularity. Both wouldn't have been this successful without each other (win-win situation). I would say both form a very good team to provide end-users choice of devices. Many among average users today buying Samsung smartphones not because it has Google in it, because it is from Samsung.
All other manufacturers today are also trying to emulate Samsung's success. That is what driving HTC, Sony, LG, Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, ASUS and others OEMs to work harder to produce competitive devices.

In fairness 1) google didn't invent Android, they bought it and eventually distributed it to a wider audience, 2) HTC was first and remains in many folks' mindset, 3)Motorola helped the platform reach "regular" mainstream with the original Droid line (and the Backflip), as many consumers continue to refer to Android as "droid", and 4) Samsung does smother the market with its too-many options, something other manufacturers have done to their downfall, and they should consider slimming down their offerings.

WTF? Really? REALLY. If this ban goes through (regardless how old the devices are) and it isn't vetoed by the President. It sends a clear message just how biased, one-sided, and UNEDUCATED his administration is. What, just because Samsung is headquartered in S. Korea? WHO CARES, it's called competition. FREE MARKET, business 101. Just because a company isn't American doesn't mean you give them an underhand by banning their products. If you feel threatened, IMPROVE your products, get creative! None of this low blow import banning non-sense. Both companies need to SETTLE THIS, now. In the mean time, my feelings stand. I am just waiting on the Obama Administration now.

Yeah baby.. You are correct as hell. Normal people hate useless disputes like this and when they become unfair people will get outrageous. I think Samsung is a fair and a TALENTED company than Apple. I'm from Sri Lanka.

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